Great fun from Monk this morning.
The four central crossers of the crossword combine in pairs to give us some quintessentially British concepts. Many thanks to Monk!
TOPPERS (good sorts) taking (E (MDMA, drug) + (BY NE (North Eastern))< (<counter))
EU + AIR< (broadcast, <about) accepting TR (Turkey)
ROUE (lecher) swallows ILL (bad)
S[p]O[t]L[i]T (at intervals) + I (international)
POR[e] (tiny hole, cut) in CORAL (pink)
(DES I REGRET)* (*unfortunately)
Double definition
BEEF[y] (powerful, snubbed)
WELLING (outpouring) + NOT< (<withdrawn)
T[emple] (beginning in) charges LOADSA (very many, slang) + R (rupees)
PUTIN (president) getting IN (home) first
(I’M (setter’s) + ANUS (opening))< (<held back) following [hea]T (end of)
(O[ral] [e]XA[mi]N[at]ION)* (*smashed; without having MATERIAL* (*prepared))
Cryptic definition
‘One paid’ leads us to understand we need the name of a profession, ‘stick to the lines’ refers to train lines, and ‘A4’ is a type of locomotive – although possibly meant to mislead us by making us think of the UK motorway, or even a piece of paper
[r]E[p]A[i]R (intermittently) + P (power) + LUG (loop)
Lug/loop are equivalent terms in the sense of the protuberances of a hinge which hold the hinge axis
NARC (specialist agent) on IS (island) + S[trombol]I (after evacuation)
BE AT (attend)
(TELL ROB)* (*about) cracking POO (manure)
[blu]E (climax to) + QUIP (joke)
ORLEANS* (*new)
(MILITARY ABUSE)* (*unexpectedly)
GLUED* (*base) + TIN (metal) + TIN (can) plated with AG (silver)
GEN (dope) on [s]E[t] (essentially) + RATION (helping)
(N[ational] G[allery] (initially) with IONIAN)* (*upset)
Supporting ER (queen); SURE (yes) follows A (American)
TOPS (kills) + IDE (fish)
([si]GNALS, (information, IS absent))< (<sent over)
[p]R[o]O[f] A[n]D (regularly considered)
Tricky but fun. I’ve already prepared a blog post today with similarly linked solutions so the ones here caught my eye fairly early on
Thanks to Monk and Oriel
I needed the blog for a bit of parsing today: I dismissed the A4 paper but had no idea there was an A4 locomotive so was stuck on the road and, hence, never made real sense of ENGINE DRIVER. TEENY-BOPPERS went in from crossers, I was nowhere near parsing it; if I’m honest, it was the only definition I didn’t really like – to me, they are younger than youths – I would certainly have bridled at being called a teeny-bopper when I was headed off to a Led Zeppelin concert as a 17 year old! LUG/loop was the other synonym that defeated parsing. TSUNAMI, PORTOBELLO and GENERATION were my podium today. Neat ninas/combos.
Thanks Monk and Oriel
Thanks for the blog , really good puzzle, neat and clever clues. OXONIAN is very precise .
ENGINE DRIVER , I too thought of paper and got this last once I had all the letters. The A4 road is usually called the Bath road but goes to many places. I am no railway buff but I have seen an A4 locomotive at York , the famous Mallard, also our East Lancs railway had one for a few years , a massive steam engine.
MrPostMark , I am sure you were a born-again TEENY-BOPPER when S Club7 were popular.
Re 22A: I grew up with “lodestar”. Maybe it’s because I never used Chambers.
17D: a person of whom I have never heard.
Thanks to Oriel and Monk anyway.
Annabelle@4 it is always lodestar for me as well but Chambers does give both . Linked to lodestone , used by the Vikings as a primitive compass.
Thanks Monk and Oriel
22ac: Further to Annabelle@4 and Roz@5, I too thought of lodestar as the natural spelling. However, loadstar is given as a variant not only in Chambers, but also in Collins and the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary. Note the way that Monk has given us wordplay that guides us firmly towards the intended answer.
7a SALERNO – The Battle of New Orleans (1959, a 65th (Blue Sapphire) anniversary), a US No. 1 for Johnny Horton, a UK No. 2 for Lonnie Donegan.
17d ANNIGONI famously painted ER in 1955 and 1969. The second‘s in the “National” (Portrait) “Gallery”.
Thanks M&O
Thank you to Monk and Oriel! A fun challenge today. After the first round we only had four answers, and it looked like it was going to be a DNF, but after much headscratching ( and lunch) things started to fall into place. It always amazes me how long it can take sometimes to get into the compiler’s head! We had the same parsing challenges as Postmark, and had to double check the spelling of LOADSTAR as well. NHO Annigoni, but figured out the anagram by process of elimination.
I thought this was a strange combination of very easy clues and very difficult clues, with not much in between. As mentioned by others, there was a lot of neat cluing, but I also left a couple unparsed. There were too many obscure words and references for my liking.
Thanks Monk and Oriel
Thanks Monk and Oriel.
OXONIAN eluded parsing.
Saw the two Across ones; not aware of the two Down ones.
Good fun.
A few clues were fun but I walked away with the feeling that this was a substandard effort by Monk.
I may have dealt it but I think I saw a recipe for Portobello Wellington
Good spot Copster , a vegetarian version using mushrooms, even vegan with the right pastry mix.
27a OXONIAN – Cantabrigian didn’t fit. In recent years they only came second and third to whatever the demonym for St Andrews is.
Late but hearty thanks Oriel for parsing the top and bottom rows in particular and pointing out the vertical connections ( happily not alone in that oversight nor in some other observations). Obviously this took me a few sessions but felt very good to cross the line: despite the flattering definition thought 27a was a fantastic clue, thanks Monk
Tried at the weekend.
Unsatisfactory and abandoned early on.
Substandard effort.
Too much general knowledge
Too clever by half.
Yuk. Yuk. Yuk.
I couldn’t do any of it and then realised I was holding the FT upside down.